“MULE TRAAAAIIN…!” It was sorta like a Tom Hanks movie as real-life TOM HANKS and two crew guys got stranded in a desert area of Morocco while hunting locations for his new movie, “A Hologram for The King,” after a tire suddenly blew on their jeep – which had no spare!

Said an on-set source: “Tom and his guys tried calling for help on their cell phones, but got zero reception. So they started walking toward the nearest big city, Rabat…then spotted a mule train carrying goods. Running up to the guy leading the pack, they asked for help. The man spoke almost no English, but got the message when Tom pulled out his wallet – and struck a deal to buy three mules! The guys ‘saddled up’ – rode bareback, actually – after being pointed in the direction of civilization.

"Two hours later, Tom and his muleskinners clip-clopped into a village, managed to phone their movie crew – then hung around until a jeep picked them up hours later.”

And their trusty mules? Said the source: “Tom traded them to a shopkeeper for cold drinks and snacks!” HEE-HAW!!!